![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/6732x4499+0+0\/resize\/1200\/quality\/75\/format\/webp\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F35%2F4b%2F1d476b2842869fa563c564483b31%2Ftx-musk-tunnel-feature-dark-v2.jpg\")
The devastating flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey<\/a> in 2017 killed dozens of people, inundated hundreds of thousands of homes and left the community desperate for a solution.<\/p>\n Since then, local flood experts have extensively studied the possibility of a multibillion-dollar tunnel system across Harris County, where Houston is located. Studies have focused on the construction of pipelines, 30 to 40 feet in diameter, that could ferry massive amounts of water out to the Gulf in the event of a storm.<\/p>\n Now, after years of research and discussion, Elon Musk<\/a> wants a piece of the project.<\/p>\n An investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle has found that the billionaire, in partnership with Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt, has spent months aggressively pushing state and local officials to hire Musk\u2019s Boring Co<\/a>. to build two narrower, 12-foot tunnels<\/a> around one major watershed. That could be a potentially cheaper, but, at least one expert said, less effective solution to the region\u2019s historic flooding woes.<\/p>\n Hunt\u2019s team has said the Boring project would cost $760 million<\/a> and involve the company getting 15% of the cost up front from state and local coffers.<\/p>\n Within two months of this push, the Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to study a pilot program that included a look at smaller tunnels, with specifications similar to what Boring had pitched. The commissioners court, made up of five elected members including a county judge, oversees the county\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n Both Musk and Hunt stand to benefit should Boring be selected to build any part of the project. Hunt is reportedly considering a challenge<\/a> to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> in next year\u2019s Republican Senate primary. And landing a job like this would also be a significant win for Boring, which has not completed a major public project in Texas and faces criticisms for its ventures elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n The discussions about the Boring pitch have happened mostly out of the public eye. Hunt mentioned the project<\/a> in passing at a town hall in Houston in February. Since then, he has refused to answer the newsrooms\u2019 questions about when Musk sold him on the idea and why he became its pitchman.<\/p>\n Efforts to reach Musk and representatives with Boring were not returned.<\/p>\n Experts and some local officials question whether Musk and his company are the right pick for the job. The Boring Co. has focused on transportation tunnels, not flood mitigation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you build a smaller tunnel, OK, it\u2019ll be cheaper, but it can carry less water,\u201d said Larry Dunbar, a veteran water resources engineer who has advised Houston-area governmental agencies on drainage issues. \u201cSo what have you saved? Have you reduced the flooding upstream by an inch? And are you going to spend multimillions of dollars to do that? Well, maybe that\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to the newsrooms\u2019 questions, state and local officials said no public money has been allocated to Boring. County officials added that they have not chosen a tunnel contractor and any process to do so would follow normal procurement rules.<\/p>\n Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/a>, whose staff met with Hunt\u2019s team<\/a> during the legislative session to discuss the proposal, remains open to the idea. As president of the Texas Senate with close ties to President Donald Trump, he is a powerful ally.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Elon Musk and the Boring Company, or any other company, can build two massive tunnels under the Houston bayous in a few years to save the city from flooding, I am always going to be interested to listen,\u201d Patrick, a Republican, told the newsrooms. \u201cThe truth is, Elon Musk is one of the only people in the world who could accomplish this.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, the Harris County Flood Control District released findings<\/a> from its yearslong tunnel study, which has so far cost nearly $3 million in local and federal funds.<\/p>\n The idea was to build eight tunnels, totalling around 130 miles in length, according to the report. The tunnels would be huge, wide enough for a container ship, and buried 40 to 140 feet underground, depending on the location. Austin and San Antonio have similar systems, although on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n The Buffalo Bayou segment of the Houston project \u2014 which Boring has proposed to build \u2014 is a centerpiece of the design and would run through the city\u2019s core and some of its most developed neighborhoods. The county estimated it would cost $4.6 billion.<\/p>\n The total cost for the system was projected to be $30 billion, funded by a potential mix of federal, state and local dollars, and the timeline was 10 to 15 years to complete construction.<\/p>\n Given the scope and complexity of the project, the Army Corps of Engineers has been involved in discussions about the tunnels since the beginning. The corps also has jurisdiction over the two federal reservoirs in the area.<\/p>\n Eight years after Harvey, however, the tunnel project has not broken ground.<\/p>\n Hunt has accused the Army Corps<\/a> of \u201cdragging their feet a little bit\u201d because its study of the tunnel system has been delayed. In December, Congress ordered the Corps<\/a> to finish the analysis. Hunt hailed the decision, but to date the Army Corps has not completed the study.<\/p>\n Just two months later, however, his staffers and Musk\u2019s team started shopping Boring\u2019s proposal to politicians across the state.<\/p>\n Emails, text messages and policy memos the newsrooms obtained through public records requests show Hunt\u2019s chief of staff, James Kyrkanides, repeatedly attempted to obtain public money on behalf of Boring. The documents, which have not been released previously to the public, also lay out how Hunt worked to secure Musk access to lawmakers and other officials ahead of the formal bidding process.<\/p>\n Kyrkanides declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n In February, Boring pitched its proposal to elected officials in Harris County as an \u201cinnovative and cost-effective solution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident in our ability to execute this project successfully to bring peace of mind to residents of Harris County and the greater Houston area during future flood events,\u201d Jim Fitzgerald, Boring\u2019s global head of business development, wrote in a two-page memo<\/a> about the proposal addressed to Kyrkanides and shared with local officials.<\/p>\n That same month, Hunt spoke at a town hall meeting about his involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cI talked to him\u201d \u2014 Musk \u2014 \u201cabout Hurricane Harvey and how we need tunnels,\u201d Hunt said, according to Community Impact.<\/a> \u201cHe told me, \u2018I can do that at a fraction of the cost the Army Corps of Engineers would do it.’\u201d<\/p>\n A few days later, the head of a local nonprofit wrote to a county commissioner<\/a> saying she\u2019d heard Hunt and Musk were shopping the proposal around and that the idea may have been discussed on board the president\u2019s jet.<\/p>\n \u201cI hear that Congressman Hunt talked to Elon Musk about his boring company while on a trip on Airforce 1,\u201d Colleen Gilbert, executive director of the Greens Bayou Coalition, emailed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if Trump was on board or took part in the discussions. The president\u2019s spokespeople didn\u2019t answer questions about the apparent meeting.<\/p>\n In April, Kyrkanides made a detailed pitch<\/a> in an email to Patrick\u2019s staff. He passed along Boring\u2019s proposal and suggested that $60 million be set aside in the state budget \u201cthat will be matched with another $60 million\u201d from the Harris County Flood Control District as a \u201cdown payment for the $760 million project Elon pitched Wesley.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the Lt. Gov. spoke with Elon and the Boring Company this week,\u201d Kyrkanides emailed in May, a month before the regular legislative session wrapped up. \u201cWesley also spoke with Elon, and everything seems on track!\u201d<\/p>\n Kyrkanides followed up once more mid-month: \u201cAnything you need from us?\u201d<\/p>\n Pushing for smaller tunnels<\/strong> Early on, Houston officials had concerns about what Boring proposed.<\/p>\n The two-page letter from Boring said its tunnels would be \u201cno shallower than 15 feet to 30 feet below ground surface,\u201d while the county\u2019s previous research proposed a much deeper range for the Buffalo Bayou segment.<\/p>\n An engineering expert in County Commissioner Tom Ramsey\u2019s office warned that Boring\u2019s shallower plan could interfere with bridge foundations, utility lines and existing easements.<\/p>\n \u201cIt discusses that the tunnel would be much shallower then anticipated,\u201d Eric Heppen, Ramsey\u2019s director of engineering, wrote in an email to other staffers in his office on Feb. 17. \u201cI would quickly confirm if it can be deeper or if that becomes a load challenge for the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Boring said in its pitch that the tunnel depth is \u201cflexible,\u201d but the company did not respond to the newsrooms\u2019 question about whether it can build to the standards outlined in the county\u2019s study.<\/p>\n Volume was another concern. A single 40-foot-wide tunnel can move about 12,000 cubic feet of water every second, county studies show. Two 12-foot-wide tunnels, laid side by side, as Boring proposed, might struggle to keep pace in a flood emergency, according to Dunbar, the veteran water resources engineer.<\/p>\n \u201cOne would need eleven 12-foot diameter tunnels to provide the same flow capacity as one 40-foot diameter tunnel,\u201d he told the newsrooms. \u201cProviding only two 12-foot diameter tunnels does not provide the flow capacity that Harris County or the Corps of Engineers are seeking.\u201d<\/p>\n The county continued to engage with the company despite these concerns.<\/p>\n In March, Scott Elmer, who\u2019s overseen the tunnel study for the past few years at the county\u2019s flood control district, reached out to Boring executives to set up a meeting. In the following weeks, he and other flood control officials met with Boring engineers at least twice to discuss the specifics of Boring\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n During one of the meetings, flood control officials pressed Boring representatives on whether the company could build tunnels that are at least 20 feet wide, according to an agenda shared with attendees via email.<\/p>\n The company was reportedly studying<\/a> how to make tunnels as wide as 21 feet several years ago. But it\u2019s unclear if Boring ever developed that capability or what it told county officials about its potential to make bigger tunnels. On its website, Boring notes<\/a> it \u201cmaintains the same tunnel design for all projects to avoid \u2018reinventing the wheel\u2019 for every tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n An April 10 commissioners court meeting in Houston was a turning point.<\/p>\n That appears to be the first time county officials brought up in public the fact that Hunt had been pitching them on a smaller-scale version of the flood plan they\u2019d studied for years. They referred to this idea as a pilot program that would focus on just a few sections of a larger, countywide tunnel system.<\/p>\n Ramsey, the panel\u2019s only Republican, specifically mentioned the pilot program tunnels could be narrower in diameter, as small as 12 feet, and shallower \u2014 specifications that would fit the kind of tunnel Boring has typically built.<\/p>\n Commissioner Lesley Briones, a Democrat, said a pilot project may help kick-start a huge, expensive project that the county has struggled to get off the ground.<\/p>\n No one mentioned Boring or Musk explicitly until Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, said he\u2019d gotten wind that the tech billionaire might be involved.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard all of the stories about Elon Musk having a tunneling company,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI\u2019ve got pretty good ears. I\u2019ve got good Republican friends, too, now.\u201d<\/p>\n He questioned the pitch, saying he was worried it would take the county off track.<\/p>\n However, Ellis and all of the commissioners unanimously voted to produce a white paper studying the idea of a scaled-down pilot project. They also voted to ask the state for flood mitigation funds. The vote didn\u2019t require the county to commit to a specific project.<\/p>\n Later that month, records show<\/a> the county\u2019s legislative liaison reached out to staff for state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, to indicate the county\u2019s support for a $60 million budget rider<\/a> for \u201cunderground flood risk reduction systems in Harris County.\u201d<\/p>\n A two-page memo explaining the pilot project<\/a> included with the request did not mention Musk or Boring and still referenced the larger 30- to 40-foot tunnels.<\/p>\n Hunt has been a leading voice on the need for flood mitigation during his short time in Congress.<\/p>\n Last year, he partnered with Democratic U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher to order<\/a> the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the underground tunnel study. The effort was applauded as a bipartisan victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Fletcher, a Democrat, said she was not involved in Hunt\u2019s work with Musk on the Boring proposal and has \u201cnot heard from anyone advocating for it.\u201d She said she\u2019s worked with Army Corps of Engineers and local communities \u201con a transparent, informed, community-driven effort to address water conveyance and flood control in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n A West Point graduate and former Army captain, Hunt has shaped a political brand that appeals to both GOP insiders and MAGA-leaning voters. He was a regular at Trump campaign events in and outside Texas and secured a prime-time speaking slot at the 2024 Republican National Convention<\/a>. He is the only Black Republican in the Texas congressional delegation.<\/p>\n But if Hunt enters the U.S. Senate race against Cornyn, he will likely need a high-profile political win to stand out, according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, as incumbent senators in Texas have won nearly every primary over the past few decades.<\/p>\n Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also challenging Cornyn in the primary.<\/p>\n Given the volatile dynamic between Trump and Musk, aligning with the latter carries political risk but also the potential for major reward, Rottinghaus said.<\/p>\n \u201cHunt certainly is well-known enough as a member in his district, but the problem is that when you\u2019re in Congress running for a statewide office, your base support can sometimes be very provincial,\u201d Rottinghaus said. \u201cTo partner with Musk would provide for a kind of national profile that Hunt would need to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk has tapped local politicians when pursuing similar big projects elsewhere.<\/p>\n In Tennessee, Republican leaders recently announced that Boring would build a transit tunnel<\/a> for cars from downtown Nashville to the nearby airport. The city\u2019s mayor and other Democratic leaders have raised questions about a lack of transparency, competitive bidding and environmental planning. At a public meeting in early August, a Boring official said the company would seek public input for the project but did not answer reporters\u2019 questions about why they had not yet done so, according to the Nashville Banner<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Las Vegas, where Boring built a transit tunnel system, the company was able to avoid many of the lengthy governmental reviews<\/a> typical of these kinds of projects because it is privately operated and receives no federal funding, ProPublica previously reported.<\/p>\n In 2022, Bloomberg reported the company had pitched eight projects<\/a> to Texas officials. Two were water drainage projects in Austin and Houston. Neither appears to have been built.<\/p>\n If Boring secures part of the Houston job, it would appear to be the company\u2019s first public flood control project. The company lists only transportation-related projects<\/a> on its website.<\/p>\n Texas law requires county governments to open large public projects to competitive bidding and give all potential contractors an equal shot under the same conditions.<\/p>\n While the law does not explicitly bar local officials from discussing projects with individual companies ahead of time, that kind of early outreach \u2014 though common in some places \u2014 hasn\u2019t been expressly authorized by state courts or the attorney general, according to legal guidance<\/a> from the Texas Municipal League, which provides legal guidance to local government officials.<\/p>\n Emily Woodell, the spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Control District, said the agency has not shared any sensitive information with Boring about the Houston project and only met with the company to understand its capabilities.<\/p>\n Ramsey, the county commissioner, told the newsrooms he believes there\u2019s nothing wrong with officials entertaining private pitches before the formal bidding process begins.<\/p>\n \u201cAll companies that might have an interest in it, that might understand and offer us information, certainly we\u2019d be open to listening,\u201d Ramsey said.<\/p>\n The future of the project, and Musk\u2019s involvement, are still up in the air.<\/p>\n The state never granted Boring the $60 million it wanted for the project. Huffman, the senator overseeing the finance committee, confirmed the rider was never placed in the state budget and told the newsrooms she had nothing to do with the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only involvement my office had with this proposal was when Rep. Hunt\u2019s chief of staff reached out to my scheduler to arrange a meeting between Rep. Hunt and me, but it never took place,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n County officials also told the newsrooms that they haven\u2019t provided any public money to Musk.<\/p>\n![\"Then-candidate](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/2048x1348+0+0\/resize\/1200\/quality\/75\/format\/webp\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F35%2Ff1%2F9597ea234fccbc9ca53e2dc4b670%2Fhc-hunt-22143974.jpeg\")
The pitch process begins<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nAs they pushed the idea to state lawmakers, Hunt\u2019s team repeatedly lobbied Harris County officials, reaching out to at least two commissioners, the county\u2019s legislative liaison and flood control experts.<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/1333x1259+0+0\/resize\/1200\/quality\/75\/format\/webp\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Faa%2Fcb%2Fc31992ce421cb317051d79e0e85d%2Ftx-musk-tunnel-illo-share-wide-v2.jpg\")
![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/2048x1391+0+0\/resize\/1200\/quality\/75\/format\/webp\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2c%2F9e%2F2b902e154b6d93b6809572640f86%2Fhc-musk-23126009.jpeg\")
What\u2019s in it for Musk\u2019s allies<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What\u2019s next<\/strong><\/h3>\n